Chris Huhne's decision to present his mistress, Carina Trimingham, to the
Queen appears to have caused a dramatic deterioration in his relations with
his wife, Vicky Pryce.

Mandrake hears that when the Energy Secretary went to collect his dress shirt studs from the south London house that he had shared with his wife of 26 years, he found his possessions piled up in plastic bags on the doorstep.

"Vicky took the opportunity to throw out all his other remaining clothes that were in the wardrobes and cupboards," a friend of the family tells me. "One has to wonder how much it would have cost him simply to replace his dress shirt studs rather than to come around and collect them?"

Huhne's invitation to Trimingham, 44, to the state banquet at Windsor Castle last month was just the latest in a series of indignities inflicted upon Pryce, 57, who is one of Britain's leading economists.

It can be disclosed that when the Liberal Democrat minister, 56, informed the unsuspecting mother of his three children that he was leaving her for Trimingham, who was previously in a lesbian civil partnership, the conversation lasted only a few minutes.

Huhne then picked up his sports bag, announced, "I am off to the gym", and headed to Fitness First in Clapham. The allegedly uncaring way that he behaved towards Pryce has been revealed by her close friends. They have broken their silence because of their anger towards him.

They have also questioned whether he exaggerated the length of his affair with his former aide to make their relationship seem more serious than it was, on the basis that this would cause less damage to his public image.

"Chris Huhne has behaved in a diabolical way," claims one friend. "It's difficult to describe how appallingly he has treated Vicky. He is a man with no integrity. We have no sympathy or respect towards him at all."

The pal alleges that Huhne was totally unsympathetic when he broke the news to his wife in June and did not even consult her over the brief statement he then issued to the media saying their marriage was over.

Last month, Pryce, who works for FTI consulting, told me: "I have initiated proceedings on the grounds of his admitted adultery, but remain married for the moment."

The divorce is likely to be costly for Huhne, who is a multi-millionaire. The former economist owns seven houses with his wife, five of which are let out as rental properties.